Preschool Adventures

The kids have loved going to their preschools this year. Kate and Kirk attend two different ones, the same days of the week, and at the same time. This makes it easy for me to get my errands done while they are there. This week Kate and Kirk both had some fun experiences at preschool. On Wednesday Kirk's preschool went to the tree house museum. We were lucky to make it there on time. Benjamin's diaper leaked all over my jeans just as we were about ready to leave from the preschool teachers home. I had to rush home and change my pants, and Benjamin's diaper. Despite the crazy start it turned out to be a lot of fun. It was good to have this Field trip to force me to take the kids out. I tend to just like to stay home since having three small kids in tow is abit of a workout.Then today Kate had her Thanksgiving party at her school. All of the kids were asked to dress up like a Indian or a pilgrim. This morning I woke up and decided to get on line to figure out an idea for a costume. I decided to make an old stained white table cloth into a little apron for her. My mom had a cute white pioneer bonnet which was perfect. It turned out adorable. I made the apron big so that she could wear it into elementary school if she needed to. She wore jeans and a black sweater underneath it. I was a little disappointed when I dropped her off. She was the only kid in her class that dressed up like a pilgrim. There were a few boys with paper feather headbands, but none of the girls were wearing costumes. Kate said that everyone liked her costume, but I think it would have been more fun if she wouldn't have been the only one. I am so excited for thanksgiving this year. I love this time of year it's so festive. Here are also some cute pictures of Benjamin, you gotta love naked baby in the tub pictures! I bought Kirk some new boots at Sam's club yesterday. I've never seen a kids get so excited over new boots before. He said "I just can't wait to show my teacher my new boots". He put his hand inside them to feel the soft fur lining. "He said theses are so soft"! After trying them on the said "Mommy these are the nicest boots I've ever seen"!

Some of the cutest pictures of Benjamin

I have been trying to keep my blog updated, but time just keeps slipping by. We are approaching mid November now, and it feels like we just barely moved in. Today while I was feeding Benjamin a bottle, I was thinking about how quickly he's grown. He's starting to get into that ready to crawl any day now position. It would be amazing if he crawled this soon since our other two didn't start until they were almost one. I can't believe that the first birthday for our little guy is creeping up just around the corner. He's seven months old now so that makes him more than half way to one years old. It's funny how with my first baby I was always looking forward to the next stage. I couldn't wait for her to sit up, crawl, and eventually walk. I was ecstatic when she started talking, and learning new words. With Benjamin I've been totally the opposite. I'm dreading the next stage. I don't want him to grow up. It seems like he's growing way to fast. I'd be perfectly content for him to stay seven months for about three more months. I need to just relish every second with him. It's funny how time just seems to speed up as you have more children. I've decided that it's because I've needed to divide my time between three kids instead of putting all of my focus and attention on one. If any Mother has discovered the trick of how to have more time during the day please let me know. Until then I'll just have to try to enjoy Benjamin in every brief moment of everyday. Thank goodness for pictures. I feel like through pictures I can keep a part of my babies with me always, even after their all grown up!

Halloween Night!

Kate was Barbie as a Musketeer. It's the latest Barbie movie.

Kirk was the Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett
As Kirk described himself "Mommy I'm a bad guy, but Kates a good guy."

Benjamin as the ever cute and cuddly cowardly Lion!

The kids have been counting down the days till Halloween. They were so excited to go out trick or treating. Kate really got into and was running from house to house. The rest of us had a hard time keeping up with her go getter trick or treat ambition. We made the mistake of going down the big hill in the neighborhood. That meant we had to hike up it when the kids were all tired out. I think next year we'll go up the hill first and save the down hill for the end when they're running out of gas. All in all the kids got plenty of candy. I think the kids might need some help with getting all their candy eaten, I"ll gladly oblige! After trick or treating it was time to make visits. We went to Dan's parents house first. It was right on our trick or treating route this year. Dan's parents home sit directly behind our home. After some snacking, and visiting we headed to my parents home. I made a pumpkin cake for dessert. It all turned out to be a lot of fun.

Mower family publicity

Last week we had quite alot of publicity. If you read my earlier post about seeking out the H1N1 vaccine, the story doesn't end there. Last week I heard that they were administering the vaccine at the Davis Conference Center. I was told that they would be getting around 30,000 vaccines. I thought that meant 30,000 for Davis county, but it must have been for the entire state, because they ran out in just a couple of hours. I pulled up to the center at 12:30. Apparently they had ran out sometime just after 12:00. I decided to park and take the kids in anyway to check it out. I was hoping to use Benjamin who's just a little baby as leverage to help me get one of the last ones. As we were walking in I spotted the news crew for channel 2 there. The reporter asked me to tell my story, so I did. I then turned around to take the kids back to the car, and a guy followed me out and offered to give us the last three child vaccines. I was totally shocked. I actually had no idea the the news crew was still shooting. When I watched in on the evening news I was actually surprised at how dramatic it all looked on camera. A Mom with a young baby, and two small kids in tow being turned away for the flu shot, and then just as I'm putting the kids back into the mini van about to drive away in defeat, I get them after all! It's a good thing that we got them to because the swine flu's been going around our ward, this week. The kids so far are holding up well. Let's just keep our fingers crossed. They actually have to have a booster vaccine to get complete immunity, and I still haven't gotten their regular flu shots yet. Our clinic actually ran out of those a few weeks ago. Here is a picture that was published in the Standard Examiner the following day. I thought it turned out really cute. I couldn't believe that out of the thousands of people who showed up we ended up on the news, and in the news paper. It was a pretty fun to watch myself and the kids on the news. Kirk kept saying, "were on T.V."?

Yummy bread and soup night

Okay since we didn't have heat for a couple of days I've been craving a childhood favorite meal; broccoli cheese soup in a bread bowl. Since this craving came on about 3:00 this afternoon I had to improvise a bit. This is my very favorite bread recipe given to me by my sister Kristen. She is the talented chief in the family. So I'm graciously passing it on to all of my blogging buddies out there and hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Peasant Bread
2 1/4 tea. yeast (I use saf instant)
2 cups warm water
1 Tbs. sugar
2 tea. salt
4 cups flour

Mix ingredients in this order, then let rise for one hour. Pull out of bowl, divide into two rounds. Place on a cooking sheet with a little bit of olive oil underneath it. Then let rise for another hour. Place in preheated oven at 425 degrees for 10 min. Then reduce heat to 375 and bake for 15 more min.

You can cover with any sort of Italian seasoning, or Parmesan cheese if desired.

It's the perfect bread to accompany soup or pasta.

It's sooo cccccold!

Okay so what does it mean when your cold, and turn on the furnace, and more cold air comes out of the vents? We definitely have some kind of a heating issue at our house. It's a good thing we have a fireplace, that at least keeps our room toasty. I've got the furnace guy coming tomorrow so until then we'll just have bundle up, and drink hot cocoa to stay warm. At least this happened in October. I'd hate to see how cold it would get in the middle of January. How did the pioneers survive? Well so anyway I was letting the kids eat their cereal up in my bedroom since it's the warmest room in the house. The next thing I hear is Kate saying "Mom Kirk just stuck his feet into my cereal". Honestly, I can't believe some of the things that kid thinks up. I went up stairs and he was hiding under my blanket. He pops his head out and says, "Mom it was an accident". When things happen by accident the kids don't get time out. It seems like more and more accidents are happening!

Hope fully we'll have some heat soon!

Kirk's Feild trip to the grocery store

Benjamin eating some sweet potatoes. He loves to eat, and will polish off the whole jar!

Okay, so going to the grocery store isn't exactly a novelty for my kids. We usually go every single week. So when I was planning on going to the store for Kirk's preschool feildtrip, I wasn't expecting it to be much more fun. I was wrong. I have to admit that it was really cute seeing 10 sweet little preschoolers explore a grocery store. We got to go behind the scenes, and see parts of the store that only workers usually go. Plus Kirk got a bunch of free stuff, and it's always fun to get something for free! I got a couple of cute pictures. Kirk loved it. I have to say that three years old is my all time favorite age for children. He is still so sweet and totally innocent. He gets excited over any tiny little thing, and best of all he still needs his mommy. The other day he kept saying "Mommy, am I cute"? I would say yes you are very cute. Then he would say "Mommy am I smart"? and I'd say yes you are very smart. The sad thing is that he's growing so fast. He's halfway to four already. Don't get me wrong four is great too, but I just love being the center of a three year old's world. It seems like once they hit four it's out with Mom, and in with all the cool friends. I have to always ask Kate to hug me before she leaves for school, and then it's like a half hug. My favorite part of my day is when I pick Kirk up from preschool. He comes running to me full speed and gives me the biggest hug ever. He is one special little guy, and I love him so much!